Nineveh

So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

¹¹ From that land he went forth into Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

² “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”

³ This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.

⁴ On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

⁵ And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

⁶ When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷ Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.

So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.

The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.

¹ This is the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:

² The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.

Nineveh has been like a pool of water throughout her days, but now it is draining away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.